Jim Fenton has worked at The Enterprise since 1981 and began covering the Celtics in the 1985-86 championship season when Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish formed the Big 3. He was seated courtside for nearly every home game during the 22-
...

Jim Fenton has worked at The Enterprise since 1981 and began covering the Celtics in the 1985-86 championship season when Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish formed the Big 3. He was seated courtside for nearly every home game during the 22-year title drought that came to an end in 2008 when the new Big 3 of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen turned things around.

More than 20 years have gone by since Kevin McHale played his last game for the Celtics, but he still gets a special feeling returning to Boston.

McHale, now the head coach of the Houston Rockets, was at the TD Garden on Monday night when his team faced the Celtics.

With Paul Pierce returning to Boston later this month for the first time as a member of the Brooklyn Nets, Pierce was asked what it would have been like if he had to play against the Celtics during his career.

"That would have been very odd, but that was so long ago I forgot what it was like,'' said McHale. "Paul will always be remembered as a Celtic. He had a great career, he won a championship.

"I spent a lot of time here. But I was away a long time before I started coaching, too. It’s one of those things where there’s always a special feeling when you come back to Boston. I enjoy it.

"But the players (now) were kids. They said, 'You played here?' I said, 'No, I didn’t play here. I played in the real Garden.' I’m not sure what this is called now -- TD, or John D or John Deere or something Garden. We had an actual Garden. It was called The Garden.''

McHale had praise for Celtics rookie coach Brad Stevens, whose team had lost eight straight games before playing the Rockets.

"I think he’s done a good job,'' said McHale. "There’s going to be a learning curve. There’s a big difference. I remember playing and having some coaches come in from college and were just like wow. Where’s the practice time, and all these games and the game is different, it’s managed different.

It’s vastly different, but I think he’s done a good job. I talked to Danny (Ainge) for a while last summer when he was making the decision. I think it’s someone Danny can really talk to.

"There’s going to be some growing pains, but I think his team plays hard. That’s the thing. If you get your guys to play hard every night, that’s a sign he’s doing something right and they’re buying in.

"He’s got a long contract and I’m sure at some point in that contract he’ll have the type of team he wants and it’ll be a team that can contend.''